Interview with Sponge singer Vinnie Dombroski

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By: Andrew

Vinnie Dombroski of Sponge

I became reacquainted with Sponge after seeing them as the opening act on Summerland 2013 (headlined by Everclear, featuring support slots from Live, and Filter). Despite only having 25 minutes, the band clearly appeased their fans, earned new ones, and pretty much made most people realize they’re more than “Plowed” and “Molly”.

The band is currently out supporting their seventh release, Stop the Bleeding. “Come In from the Rain” is currently being serviced to radio. It’s a great rock radio tune.

We kept the conversation mainly to Summerland 2013 and the new album. The audio runs about 15 minutes. It’s an enjoyable listen.

I’d say most of our audience gave up on Sponge, or didn’t know they released albums post-Wax Ecstatic. I implore you to revisit that album and Rotting Pinata, as well as everything that came after. And to the younger audience, do yourselves a favor and investigate what Sponge has to offer. Start with the staples, “Plowed” and “Molly”, and go from there.

The first time I saw Sponge was in 1995 or 1996. It was at Coney Island High, which used to be located on St. Mark’s Place in New York City. As a teenager, I remember being obsessed with the Rotting Pinata candy corn album cover. Still to this day, I don’t know why. It just looks cool. Everything came full circle when seeing them in Hampton Beach, NH as part of Summerland, as well as at the South Shore Music Hall in Boston in September.

Sponge got lumped into that whole post-grunge thing. Seven Mary Three were casualties of that as well. Rotting Pinata and American Standard were two grade a+ albums that were led by only one single. If given the chance to shine I can say that we would have seen a lot more from both bands. Wax Ecstatic was way better than Lucky/Rock Crown.

This isn’t meant to stir the pot but I’m asking this to be fair: do you think he was too much like Weiland which is why Sponge kind of fell off? I went back and watched some of those TV appearances on YouTube and he was very Weilandesqe.

The dude above me is right. The guy sounds so damn positive. He’s been in a band that really doesn’t get any credit despite cranking out some damn good albums.

They killed it at Summerland when I saw the shoiw this year. I was reluctantly early because I wanted to see Filter. Sponge put on a great set and those guys look like they’re having a ball up there. Great to see.

I streamed some of the Sponge catalog online. I heard Plowed a zillion times but never payed attention to the band that sang it. I’m happy to hear during the interview a tour with Spacehog coming on. I owned that Alien CD back in the day. I’m definitely going to be checking it out if it hits Philly.

I don’t think their lack of long-term success had anything to do with a resemblance to Scott Weiland. When things don’t go according to plan, people make excuses for things and I’ve heard the Weiland thing a lot. It was just wrong place wrong time. Their catalog is solid.